Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Books

Flying Frogs and Walking Fish

Animals walk, leap, climb, and swim. Some roll or turn flips. Others fly or glide, and a few are even jet-propelled.

There are so many ways to get around, and a good chance you’ve only seen a few of them. For example, have you ever seen a walking octopus? It has eight legs, but uses only two of them to walk along the ocean floor.

This is a book full of ACTION! Animals leap, tumble, climb, glide, tiptoe, scramble, cruise, slither, and dive. To do those things, they need adaptations that allow that sort of movement. Like tube-feet, fins, between-the-toes webbing, and spring-loaded legs.

What I like about this book: the large print verbs introduce a collection of animals that move in similar fashion, and the paper cut illustrations that show how each animal is adapted for that motion. For example, a red-lipped batfish waddles across the sea floor on its fins. A flying squirrel uses skin flaps to capture air for gliding. And jumping spiders…. they can leap 50 times their own body length. Talk about moving!